Join the Discussion Come discuss journaling techniques with us in the Forum Take Me to the Forum

Related Resources • Story Starter Collection • Quick and Easy Pages: Book Review of New Book by Joanna Campbell Slan • Journaling and Lettering • How To Get Started Journaling in Your Album: Beginner How To

From Other Guides • Journaling for Scrapbooks

Elsewhere on the Web • Scrapbook Storytelling

If you are looking for a Story Starter idea that is tied specifically to this month, please check the archives for this column.  If you are here because I offer you inspiration for journaling and scrapbooking, read on!

1. In Retrospect

Tonight is Halloween. When my son goes off with his middle-school pals to trick-or-treat, I'll stay behind passing out candy. Each little "monster" and "goblin" who comes to the door will remind me of Halloweens gone by.

There was the year they called me from the school and said, "Michael is all right…now." NOW? What the heck? Seems he had jammed a stick into his eye while on the playground. They were pretty sure he was okay.

I wasn't. I broke a land speed record racing to the school and then on to the office of an eye doctor I knew.

"I can't believe it," said the doc, closing the door behind him and leaving Michael and the nurse to pick out a candy as a treat. "I'd be on the floor in pain if I'd scratched my eye like he did, but hey, he's fine." We went home with drops and a heavy sense of "thank-you-God-we-dodged-the-bullet." As I pulled into our subdivision, Michael said, "Mom, how come you are so tense?"

I hedged. "We have so much to do. We have to carve the pumpkin. We have to eat dinner. We have to get your costume together. We have to go trick-or-treating."

He shook his head at me and lectured, "Mom. Mom. Calm down. All we gotta do is go trick-or-treating. We don't gotta carve the pumpkin. We don't gotta eat dinner. I don't care about my costume. But I GOTTA GO trick-or-treating."

Boy, am I ever dumb sometimes. He was right. I was so wound up. I was so into the supermarket checkout line headlines of magazines, that I was missing the point. He knew exactly what mattered, what would make his memories and I was way off base. We can have dinner any night of the year. The pumpkin will not file a complaint for neglect. The costume, well, Michael wore a pointed straw hat, a silk kimono jacket and cowboy boots. An astonished neighbor peered out at him through the darkened doorway and asked, "What are you supposed to be?"

Michael looked at this poor, dumb soul and answered, "I'm a trick-or-treater."

Like he said, it was all he had to do that particular evening.

Journaling & Page Idea:

What has made Halloween or any other celebration memorable at your house? When boiled down to the essence what was the most important part of the event? Make a page celebrating this one point and journaling about why it was so important that year.

2. Whom Are You Going to Vote For?

Every vacant lot and nearly every lawn has a fresh crop of signs for political candidates. Of course, I will vote this Tuesday. It's the least I can do as an American

When my son asked my husband and I about our choices, I found myself thinking about my parents. My mother has always said that she and my father voted and cancelled each other out. She said it with a laugh, but now I wonder. I wonder whom she pulled the lever for and whom my daddy picked. I wonder what issues they disagreed upon. I wonder if they ever discussed their political views and changed each other's minds.

Journaling & Page Idea:

I think I'll make an election page for my scrapbook this year. I'll note who is running, what the issues are, and what David and I think. I'll journal about the debate I heard between Carnahan and Talent, and my impressions. I'll note that there's a proposal to add 55 cents to the cost of cigarettes and what that might mean. I'll write about where our polling place is and how it's moved 3 times in 8 years. I'll note that in Europe, people get the day off to vote-and they are astonished to think that in the US where we're a by-word for democracy, people have to sandwich in voting between going to and coming home from work.

I don't doubt that my grandkids won't vote in the same archaic fashion that I do. We still have punch ballots here in Missouri and when I lived in Illinois, we had the ballots that so confused people in Florida during the presidential election. (If you've ever used them, you'd understand why people were disoriented.) My goal will be to give the next generations a personal glimpse into the world of a common voter in 2002. If I shame them into making sure that they vote whenever given the chance, so much the better.

--Joanna

Joanna's new book Adventures in Journaling is available in stores now! Look for it at your local scrapbook retailer or at my-memories.net.